In May, a New York court found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying documents and violating accounting laws in connection with the payment of so-called hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The sentence is to be announced on November 26, after being postponed several times. Trump's lawyers will likely request that the sentence be postponed again, according to CNN.
A potential sentence is complicated by the fact that Trump will take office as president on January 20, 2025, which his lawyers will likely try to exploit to drag out the case in the courts for several years.
Overturn the Election Result
However, since the case is a state matter, Trump does not have the authority to pardon himself after taking office as president.
Trump is also being prosecuted in several other cases. One concerns his alleged attempt to get election officials to overturn the result of the 2020 state election in Georgia.
The case is currently on hold while a court decides whether the prosecutor should be disqualified, a decision not expected until 2025. But even if the prosecutor is allowed to continue, the case would likely be jeopardized now that Trump has been elected, as there are uncertainties about whether a state prosecutor can prosecute a sitting president.
Wants to Fire the Investigator
Trump is also being prosecuted for violating the American espionage law. This is because large quantities of classified documents were found in his home in Florida after he had moved out of the White House.
Trump has made it clear that he will fire the special investigator Jack Smith, who is leading the case regarding the election in the state of Georgia and the classified documents – something a president has the right to do.
On Wednesday, American media reported that Smith was in talks with the US Department of Justice to evaluate how he can conclude his prosecutions of Donald Trump.
The decision to drop the prosecutions is based on the Justice Department's policy that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed during their term of office, according to sources at ABC News.
The cases in New York and Georgia, however, cannot be influenced by Trump in the same way, since they are not federal cases.
Regarding the case of the storming of the Congress building, the Supreme Court has decided that the case must be reviewed again, since American presidents have extensive immunity when it comes to actions taken during their term of office.
In addition to these cases, a number of civil and economic lawsuits are ongoing.
However, few believe that the cases will have legal consequences for Trump as long as he is President of the United States.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and claims that the prosecutions are the result of political persecution by the Democrats.
